Rauner adds $500,000 of own money, opening fundraising for rivals

Move will allow other candidates to raise unlimited funds

November 14, 2013|By Rick Pearson | Tribune reporter

(Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)

Wealthy Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner is adding $500,000 of his own money to his campaign, an amount that will trigger a provision allowing his three GOP rivals and Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn to raise unlimited amounts from contributors.

Much of the Rauner’s money will be spend on a new series of ads set to begin airing Friday on broadcast and cable TV, two sources close to the campaign said Wednesday. The new ad continues a theme in which Rauner contrasts his inexpensive wristwatch with a critique of “Pat Quinn’s watch” over Illinois government spending.

The commercials will mark the beginning of what one of the sources described as the start of an “intensive and sustained” presence on television as the first-time candidate tries to introduce himself to potential voters. It’s also a further display of Rauner’s campaign wealth relative to his Republican rivals.

Rauner’s latest cash influx was to have been made Wednesday, the sources said, and show up in campaign finance disclosure forms as required by early next week. Rauner, an equity investor from Winnetka, will have donated $749,000 to his own campaign. That will bring to nearly $4 million the amount generated since he began his bid earlier this year.

Rauner initially put $249,000 into his campaign in March — an amount $1,000 below the figure needed to trigger a clause in the state’s campaign finance laws that lift the limits on outside donations to all the candidates in the race.

By staying below that trigger until now, Rauner was able to hamstring at least two of his three rivals for the March Republican governor nomination: 2010 GOP nominee state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington and state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale.

The fourth candidate in the Republican governor primary, first-term state Treasurer Dan Rutherford, traditionally been an aggressive fundraiser and had more money in his campaign bank account at the end of September than Rauner — though Rauner’s ability to self-fund his campaign at any point was readily apparent.

In the meantime, many wealthy Republican donors who might have signed onto rivals instead joined Rauner’s bid, including Chicago businessman Ron Gidwitz, who had been a major donor and fundraising resource for Dillard in a losing 2010 bid for the nomination against Brady. Rauner also has been able to tap into a nationwide donor network.

In addition to having limited some big-dollar fundraising ability of Republican rivals, Rauner’s decision to now bust the self-funding cap comes as the Democratic Governors Association formed a so-called super political action committee last week to financially assist Quinn’s bid for a second elected term.

The Jobs and Opportunity for Illinois PAC will be allowed to raise and spend unlimited money in independent expenditures to assist Quinn’s re-election. Even if Rauner had stayed below the self-funding threshold, once the super PAC spent more than $250,000 any limits on campaign donations would have been lifted.

Quinn faces no major opposition in the March Democratic primary and had $3 million in his campaign fund at the end of September.

In addition to the TV ads, Rauner has begun organizational work that includes more than 70 volunteer regional campaign coordinators, spokesman Mike Schrimpf said.